Offshore boat anglers are enjoying some hectic sport with spurdog with a party aboard John Barbeary’s Ilfracombe based Charter boat Bluefin landing over sixty in a trip last weekend. These members of the shark family bring welcome sport each winter with their numbers recovering following the ban on commercial fishing.
Combe Martrin SAC member Ross Stanway sent me this report and pictures from his day aboard “Wild Frontier” off Ilfracombe. The anglers on board from all over Devon enjoyed success with conger, bull huss, spurdog, dogfish, whiting and smoothound. The boat new to Ilfracombe has plenty of deck space ensuring marks can be reached on all but the roughest of days. The best conger scaled 25lb, spurdog to 15lb and huss into double figures. Breakfast of bacon rolls helped sustain the anglers through the day afloat.
Cameron Atkinson, Thomas Atkinson, James Mayhew and David Atkinson Cracking enjoyed a splendid days boat fishing from a Private boat the boat catching around 50 spurdog with the biggest weighing 15lb to Thomas.Camerons biggest went 14lb 12oz. They also had a few decent huss with the biggest weighing 13lb 8oz caught by David Atkinson along with a few eels to around 20lb and a small eyed weighing 5lb 7oz, they also lost a few other decent fish either spitting the bait half way up or on the surface near the boat. The fish were tempted on a range of fish baits including, mackerel, squid and pouting.
The flounder fishing season has got into full swing following a few frosty mornings with plump flounder being caught from all the popular estuary marks.
Mark Beer won Triple Hook Clubs RBL Club Shield Flounder Match with a fine flounder of 2lb 7/8oz. Runner up was Kevin Hancock with a flounder of 1lb 103/4oz and third Dennis Toleman with a flounder of 1lb 97/8oz.
(Above)Paul Hutchings and Andrew McKenna enjoyed an action packed session on the Taw estuary catching upwards of thirty flounder over 1lb 4oz the best a beauty of 1lb 14oz.
Further afield North Devon angler Dan Miles Redmore secured first place in Sunday’s heat of the prestigious National Flounder competition fished on the River Teign estuary over last weekend. Dan’s flounder scaled a fraction over 2lb and beat a field of almost 170 anglers.
Heidi Green took first and second places in Appledore Shipbuilders Rover catching flounder of 1lb 143/8oz and 1lb 133/8oz. Third was Josh Atkinson with a flounder of 1lb 117/8oz. Amelia Mellor took first and third in the junior section with flounder of 1lb 9oz and 1lb 5oz. In second was Jack Pike with a flattie of 1lb 71/2oz.
http://www.summerlands-tackle.co.uk
Nathan Clements won Bideford Angling Clubs monthly rover with a dogfish of 2lb 1oz. In second was Terry Dymond with a flounder of 1lb 4oz.
Combe Martin Sea Angling Club members enjoyed a day out of Minehead aboard Steve Webber’s boat Osprey. Cod were the intended target but proved difficult to find on the day. Persistence eventually paid off when Rob Scoine’s bait was seized by a fine double figure cod weighing 12lb 4oz. James Thomas boated a blonde ray of 12lb the best of several ray caught including thornback and one other blonde. Smoothound, spurdog, dogfish and numerous conger were also caught.
The autumn is racing towards its close as winter descends and now is the time to catch that special fish. Looking back over the decades November is a month that can produce that fish of a lifetime. Kevin Legge’s British record tope of 66lb and 66lb 8oz were both caught in early November. Barry Hill’s shore caught record coalfish of 18lb was also caught in November and Tim Neal caught a rockling of 3lb 1oz that also held the British record. The stories behind some of these fish are in my book I Caught a Glimpse due for release in mid February 2019.
Paul Lorrimore and a party of anglers enjoyed a great days sport on Blue-Fin out of Ilfracombe.
Thanks to Paul for his account of the day.
Initially after seeing the water clarity (which was pretty good) we headed for the Horse-Shoe Rocks for a crack at some Bass action.
We chucked everything at it from Skerries Eels to Live Sand Eels – but only small 2lb to 3lb Bass were coming aboard.
A big change to the last visit from the skipper.
After a good go and more Pollack, small Bass and a chunky Pouting to Andy Smiff ,we anchored up and got the big gear down.
From the get go, the Tope came out to play.
Myself and Troy Laing boating fish of around 35-40lb.
Paul’s tope total for the day was 5.
All on the boat landing good fish, and plenty of them -I think we counted 17.
Species today – Huss, Dogs, Pollack, Pouting, Conger, Smoothhound, Tope, Bass.
Hot sun and crystal clear water is not ideal for all species but one fish that will feed well in these conditions is the ballan wrasse that can be caught using king ragworm, crab or prawn. Ollie Passmore landed these two colourful specimens to just over 3lb at a mark near Ilfracombe.
The calm waters are also brilliant for boat anglers with plenty of tope being caught off Ilfracombe on Charter boats and on Private boats. Toby Bassett caught this fine tope of 33lb from his own boat a cracking photo as well!
Stef Jones and Matt Druce enjoyed some fine sport over the weekend in Bideford Bay and beyond landing tope to 35lb and spurdog to 16lb 2oz along with bull huss.
Blue skies, calm seas and clear water the lure fishers paradise. Daniel Welch has been enjoying some superb sport off North Devon’s spectacular coastline.
Awesome light gear fishing for pollack on a 16g Nomura rod. Loads of pollack around 4-5lb and got smashed up by a couple big ones. So moved to a slightly heavier setup and had a 10lb 3oz beauty caught on a size 4 fiiish candy green lure supplied by High Street Tackle
